Lazio stops Roma 1-0 with a goal from Zaccagni. Tension between players at the end of the game

The derby of the respective ambitions of the Champions League says only those of Lazio are legitimate. A paw from Zaccagni in the second half crumbled the defensive house of cards set up by Mourinho, made more attackable by the naive Ibanez, sent off in the 32nd minute for a very avoidable double yellow card. Both biancoceleste, after the success of the first leg, which sends Sarri’s band to second place and +5 on Roma, glued to fifth place. Prepared with containing intentions by the disqualified Mourinho, initially preferring Belotti to Abraham, and proactive from the present Sarri, the 180th derby unfolds according to the script of the eve: Lazio acts in vertical ways, attacking Zalewski with the aggressive Zaccagni and going to take the Giallorossi defenders very high, while Roma, the few times they put their noses in the biancoceleste trocar, prefer the horizontal ways. The result, after about ten minutes of baiting their respective larks, is a match with more Roma players and some sporadic attempts at Lazio football. A yellow card for Ibanez, one for Luis Alberto, a shot from just outside Wijnaldum and a too soft shot by Felipe Anderson in the arms of Rui Patricio. Tangled up in a 0-0 embrace, with Dybala playing the central midfielder and Milinkovic-Savic lazy as on the worst days, Lazio and Roma find nothing better than throwing her in the racket and mounting a continuous uproar. The spark that ignites the competitive fire flares up in the 32nd minute: the repeat offender and already booked Ibanez, guilty of glaring mess in two previous lost derbies, misses the stop, lands Milinkovic Savic and leaves Roma in ten men. The bullfight continues until the interval: a ball thrown into a lateral foul by Pedro triggers a brawl between the two benches which sends Nuno Santos, the Roma goalkeeper coach, to the locker room who tries in every way to provoke the Spaniard, and Marco Ianni, assistant of Sarri famous for an argument with Mourinho in a Chelsea-Manchester United.

With more than an hour to face outnumbered, Mourinho has the pretext to raise the defensive barricade, leaving Dybala in the dressing room and inserting defender Llorrente. In front of a Roma perched with a 5-3-1 of catenacciara memory and necessary protective virtue, Lazio undertakes a long maneuver of circumvention. With the area clogged by Roma sentries and not being able to count on Immobile’s battering ram (on the bench but not usable), Sarri has to come up with alternative solutions to free his slingers from shooting. Luis Alberto tries three times from outside: he is frantically rejected for a corner by Rui Patricio on the first attempt, just wide on the second and blocked by Mancini in the slide on the third. Pedro and Felipe Anderson launch two more alarm bells that anticipate the inevitable collapse of the Roma palisade in the 65th minute: Felipe Anderson finds depth, Zalewski makes a hole and Zaccagni places his calibrated right foot on the far post that kills Rui Patricio. Hit and reconfigured with Abraham’s grafts for Belotti and Matic for Wijnaldum, Roma deludes themselves of catching the equalizer on the first attempt: Pellegrini’s punishment, Mancini’s header rejected by Provedel and Casale’s harakiri on Smalling’s retaliation. The Var sees the offside of the Englishman and cancels. Saved by a retreat from Llorente on Pedro, the Mourinhians set up an initial siege: Spinazzola engages Provedel, Pellegrini sends an interesting ball into the corner and the entrances of El Shaarawy and Solbakken scrap the conservative 5-3-1 for a 4-2- 3 ultra offensive. Sarri’s defensive Maginot holds for the fifth consecutive day. And Lazio, after the final brawl that costs Marusic and Mancini the red light, smells of the Champions League.